The president of the United States said he was at ground zero in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attack in New York. On Tuesday, during a memorial service in Washington to mark the 25th anniversary of that horrible day, Donald Trump gave the impression he was part of the recovery effort as well as among those who were rescued.
It was a big lie, but it was more than that.
It was stolen valor.
Trump said because he was constructing “a big building in New York” at the time of the city’s rescue-and-recovery operations, he “took the whole crew down [to ground zero] right after [9/11] happened.” He said “we went down, it was a big group of people. Wasn’t too much we could do, I’ll be honest — it was, you know, it was raw, and nobody’s seen anything like it.”
Trump said “we had other buildings; the United States Steel building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down … but it never came down.”
Trump said “I remember — I’ll never forget two firemen. We thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen — big, strong guys — and I’m not the smallest guy in the world — they grabbed me under the arms, said, ‘gotta get out of here.’ And they literally lifted me up.”
Every word here is a lie, including “a” and “the.” Daniel Dale, Martin Longman and Judd Legum establish the facts. So did New York magazine. “Naturally, his appearance couldn’t pass without a bit of weirdness.” In response, the president accused the magazine of lying.
It’s a game Donald Trump likes to play – speak in a way that makes him look like the most dominant man in the room, whom everyone must pay attention to, then accuse those who point out his lies, exaggerations and outright delusions of grandeur of acting in bad faith. Trump has been playing this game a long time. New Yorkers are especially familiar with it. In October 2016, before that year’s presidential election, the Daily News ran this cover story.
But again, these are not just lies. They are stolen valor.
“Stolen valor” is a term usually reserved for people who lie about military service. Here’s how the Armed Forces Benefit Association defines it: “Stolen valor is essentially a lie. It involves falsely claiming military service, rank, recognition or even someone else’s identity.”
The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 made it a federal crime for a person “to fraudulently claim to have received a valor award specified in the Act, with the intention of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit by convincing another that they received the award.”
But I think it’s fair to apply the term more generally to anyone who wants a piece of the fame and fortune of heroic acts, but none of the cost, risk or sacrifice that comes with them.
A decade ago, Donald Trump wanted the glory of supporting the families of 9/11 victims without actually giving them any money. On Tuesday, he wanted the glory of dispatching “more than 100 men” to ground zero without actually dispatching anyone, much less himself.
He wants the valor, but not the work that goes into earning it.
So he steals it.
Trump’s theft should have made for banner headlines, especially on the 25th anniversary of 9/11. It is tempting to say it would have been if he were a Democrat. However, that might overlook how much American politics has shifted in the last quarter century, a shift that I think was captured by Jesse Ventura when he was on Paul Rieckhoff’s podcast in February.
“This last election was a choice, a very simple one, in my opinion,” Ventura said. “You have the choice between the Constitution and the criminal, and this country chose the criminal. Now they’re all appalled at what’s happening? What would you expect the criminal to do when he gets in there? He’s gonna hire other criminals to work with him. They all will be an ilk together, a big group. You put a criminal at the top of America, a convicted felon.
Expect crimes when you elect a criminal, but don’t expect them to be limited to bribes, corruption and other obscenities. We put a criminal at the top of America. If he acts like he’s entitled to take for himself a piece of the honor reserved for heroes, that’s on us as much as it is on him. To be sure, Donald Trump is stealing valor. But we the people are his accessories.
Almost 3,000 Americans died on 9/11. Four and a half thousand US military personnel died in the Iraq War. (As many as 400,000 Iraqis died with them.) Donald Trump’s theft should be more than “a bit of weirdness.” The public should see it as a ferocious national scandal.
But it won’t be, because a scandal would force us to confront the truth: that a majority of voters traded the rule of law for the fraudulent promise of “economic security” (to borrow Chris Christie’s exceedingly charitable framing of the 2024 election). The media is indeed deferential to Trump, but most of us do not want to be held accountable for our choices.
Better to avert our eyes.
Even if that results in the sacrilege of the hallowed dead.